


You are the only exception

by kaaterinapetrova



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, also fuck pepper bc in this house we acknowledge that women can be abusers too, also may dies, anyway tony adopts peter and this is them working through their grief together, bc he sees pepper's toxicity and says NO like a GOOD FRIEND, i can't believe i had to see the morgan stark tag with my own two eyes, i gotta stop killing her, i'm gonna fix this up i swear, lets be honest tony had more chemistry with the cheeseburger he ate in im1, lowkey roadtrip au, probably, than he ever had with pepper, the atrocity, the horror, why does she exiST, will fix later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-25 16:47:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22499311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaaterinapetrova/pseuds/kaaterinapetrova
Summary: After they defeat Thanos, Tony is left broken, Peter loses the last of his family, and together, the two heal each other. / yes it is another tony adopts peter au no i am not original in the slightest--
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 22
Kudos: 45





	You are the only exception

**Author's Note:**

> *pops out of rubbish bin* oh, hi, i didn't see you there
> 
> oh my god why am i doing this but also i did promise myself i would write something and post it so unfortunately we are getting this mess of a disaster on this terrible, not very good day. it has been a very not good week / month for me and i am just lowkey delirious now bc at this point i am emotionally wrung out completely, wholeheartedly. the stress and the anxiety have eaten me alive and spat me out to leave this absolute wreck of a creature behind and i apologise for it, i really do but yes back to the story bc shitgame will be my villain origin story joker is q u a k i n g 
> 
> i swear i am working on the other story and i've got some stuff written up, i just need to edit it properly and work out the kinks. it's just been a very long month and i'm sort of clawing desperately at any opportunity my brain gives me to be able to write and i thought i was getting better lol but here we are again. anyway, back to this story - i shall probably come back to both of them when i've got some more free time and am less stressed and depressed lol, and actually work on them and upload them properly. 
> 
> this one is your standard tony-adopts-peter-because-may-dies fic lol, so it's not really anything special except we do have *nobody is surprised* pepper bashing too lol 
> 
> i really hope you guys like this one - i'm hoping to be able to write and properly edit this all soon, i just wanted something concrete up to stop me from dying lol

It happens when Tony takes the soul stone and wishes for Peter Parker.

In the same moment, Thanos screams when the infinity gauntlet is ripped from his arm, power crashing all around them, and when Tony looks at him, he knows that the Titan is going to die. He must have been depending on the power of the stones to keep him going, he realises as the gauntlet lays soaking on the ground.

His Iron Man armour is starting to fold away under the power it takes to hold the soul stone, but Tony keeps gripping it tight. _Just bring him back, bring them all back, take us back, please, please, please—_

“NO!” the Titan roars as his work is completely undone, the world he remade unwritten by Tony’s breathless plea.

Thanos grasps Tony’s arm, his eyes bright and blazing.

Blood seeps out of his mouth, wet and frothing, and Tony feels just as weak as Thanos looks. Exhaustion clings to him, something hot and aching, amidst the fight and it takes all of the effort within him to just stay standing up. Everything around him is screaming and the world turns completely white, showing nothing but Thanos’ face before him. The Titan’s face darkens in sharp fury as the blade in his big, meaty paw gleams.

He’s in so much pain that he can barely feel the sword when it slices through his armour like butter and cuts him apart.

“We will die together then, Stark,” Thanos promises harshly, his voice coming out wretched and pained as he crumples to his knees weakly, “as destiny would have it.”

Someone is screaming as the soul stone suddenly gapes open, orange and gleaming and bright, and Tony can see Peter Parker. That’s all he’s ever wanted, for the kid to be okay, and now, the overwhelming relief sinks in deep into his chest and smooths out the incessant beating of his heart heart. His breaths hitch a little as Thanos drives the blade in deeper and Tony starts to choke on his own blood.

Peter is going to be okay, he thinks to himself, barely able to feel the pain for the relief of it all. If he takes Thanos with him too, to make sure the kid is completely safe, then that’s all he’s ever wanted. And Peter will be perfectly fine.

That was his plan.

But then Nebula is snarling, “ _Fuck_ your destiny,” and she’s screaming as she launches herself at Thanos.

Tony can see the flash of her own sharp sword, with the reinforced vibranium, gleaming and slicing through the dust of the red battlefield around them. Nebula moves faster than anything he’s ever seen and Thanos is too weak to move back from her attack, so when she takes off his head, the body collapses heavily to the ground. Thanos is a broken and crumpled figure on the ground, Nebula’s lithe form panting over him.

“TONY!” someone screams his name, but he doesn’t recognise the voice.

But the deed is already done and Thanos’ blade stays in his stomach. He clutches at it blindly, blood pouring over his hands, and Tony stumbles back onto the ground clumsily. The ground hits his back when he falls heavily with a grunt of pain echoing through his entire body and he can barely breathe through the resounding pain.

Above it all, he can see the skies.

The world is ashy and cloud-strewn, but Tony can see the slightest smattering of soft blue seeping across his vision briefly. He doesn’t want to go just yet, he realises suddenly, regret bursting through his chest and warring with the pain.

He wants to see Peter, Tony wants to say, suddenly distressed, tilting his head back. Opening his mouth takes too much effort, but still, he tries. He’ll go after he’s seen Peter. Just to make sure the kid’s okay. And Rhodey, too. He wants to see his best friend one last time.

_Please, please, let me see them, before I go, I don’t want to go without seeing them one last time—_

“Tony!”

The voice sounds like his mother. She calls to him, soft and sweet as a siren song, and unable to resist, Tony falls prey to it with drunken ease.

Maybe it’s selfish to think he should be given one last chance, he realises to himself. He has had so many, after all, and he knows that he’s lucky enough to even be able to try to work to wipe away the blood soaking his hands. Tony feels his head sink back into nothing and slow and soft, death reaches for him with trembling, gentle fingers.

He follows quietly.

He doesn’t deserve to go so quietly, but Tony has always been a selfish, horrible thing, so when death moves to embrace him, he reaches back with a wide, gaping heart. Bruised and battered, he feels his chest break apart and closes his eyes.

“TONY! TONY!”

But apparently this is not the way he’s going to go.

Not today.

Someone is screaming his name and the noise is blinding as it filters sharply through the peaceful blur of the world around him. Blood begins to roar in his ears and Tony is suddenly, very rudely yanked into the present where he can _feel_ again.

Hands are on him, voices in his ears, and maybe he is in Hell already, because he always knew Hell was Afghanistan without Yinsen.

Tony can already taste the dry sand in his mouth and he feels the heat dripping down his back, as the world turns into shades of black and grey of the cave. He knows this is his penance. This is what he deserves.

There is no Yinsen here, because why would there be?

“It’s Iron Man!” someone is shouting above him and he blinks groggily, twisting his face.

 _No, it’s not,_ Tony wants to say. He wants to correct the person. He has never been Iron Man. Iron Man is good and strong and everything Tony Stark wants so badly to be, but can never quite make it.

“He needs help!”

He may need it, but does he deserve it?

Does death bring out the philosophical side of him? Tony has to wonder about it. He’s never really entertained the thought, but here he is. Almost delirious, he might say.

Someone is reaching for him and there are hands all over him, pulling apart the suit. Tony can’t recognise anyone, shaking his head as he pulls back, struggling valiantly against it. The panic bubbles up in his chest, frothing and brimming until he wants to scream but the silence strangles his throat.

People are everywhere in this cave and they reach for him like vultures. Picking and pecking and tearing him apart with careless ease, the protective armour falling away from him like melted butter. Leaving nothing but his true, broken self for everyone to see.

He’s never felt so seen.

He’s never felt so dead.

“I’m a doctor, Mr Stark,” a woman’s voice echoes above him. “I need you to keep breathing and keep your eyes open. That’s fantastic. We need medical, stat! You’re doing great…”

Her voice trails away in the chaos for a few moments and Tony tries to do as she says, because she just sounds like a really nice person. He hasn’t had much praise in his life and Tony was always starved for affection like a wild, hungry thing so whenever he got even the slightest tidbit, he’d lap it up like a dog.

Embarrassing, really. He should stop doing that.

Besides, why would he want to breathe?

The answer comes to him not in a flash, but in a comfortable sense of knowledge that brims up like water rushing up to sand.

“ _Peter_ …” Tony manages to gasp out, hotly. “Where—Peter…”

Is Peter alright? Is he safe? He has to know.

If Peter is in this Hell with him, Tony will burn everything to the ground. He can withstand anything but that.

“I’m a nurse!” someone is calling out.

He starts to panic. Does Peter need a nurse? The world is so filled with fraught tension, his heart hammering in his chest. There’s a pricking pain in the ache of his chest and his whole body is completely sore all over. Then it turns so numb he doesn’t feel anything at all and even the fear begins to slip away.

“Come on! Let’s go, let’s go!” That’s Rhodey, Tony realises faintly, and he reaches instinctively. A hand wraps, tight and strong, around his own, grounding him. He’s not in Hell, Tony realises. There’s no way Rhodey would be here if he was.

“Peter,” Tony tells him urgently.

Is Peter okay? Is everyone back? Is it okay now?

“Tony, stay with me! Stay with me, okay?” Rhodey squeezes tight and his voice comes out fierce. “Don’t you fucking leave us, Tony. Don’t you _dare_!”

Tony’s always been terrible at following orders.

But Rhodey is crying, so he holds on until the doors of the operating theatre closes in on him.

.

.

Peter doesn’t really know where to go, so he stays in the hospital.

He’s with Colonel Rhodes, who has blood on his face and keeps tapping the metal of his foot against the floor in a distracting rhythm. The hospital feels too big and too small all at once and Peter has to keep staring at his hands to make sure that he’s still real. That he’s not fading away to ash and dust right before his very eyes, his spider senses still screaming at him. The anxiety bubbles deep in the pit of his stomach and he feels like he might throw up, especially when he can hear the doctors in the operating theatre shouting.

Then the Colonel swears and remembers he has an aunt.

“Shit, uh, not shit,” he says, fumbling over his words when he realises that Peter’s still in high school. Peter would be offended if he hadn’t died this afternoon. “She was—she was also snapped away. I’ll call her up for you, Peter, and get Friday up and running.”

Peter nods and swallows tight as Colonel Rhodes gets to his feet, rubbing his forehead and muttering a list of things he has to get done, though his gaze keeps sweeping over to the operating theatre worriedly. Peter feels completely torn, his heart heavy in his chest, wanting desperately to know that everything will be okay.

That Mr Stark will be okay and May will be safe and maybe this panic climbing in his chest will fade away, too.

If May was also snapped away, Peter thinks distractedly when the Colonel walks away, talking into his phone quickly, hopefully that means she wasn’t in any pain, too. From what Peter can understand, he was the only one to feel the actual pain and while Peter is kind of grateful for that, some terrible and selfish part of him wishes desperately that he didn’t have to, because it had hurt.

It had hurt a _lot_.

“Where is he?” Ms Potts is shouting, looking distressed as she bursts into the hospital. “I told him not to get into that damned suit—,”

“He just got stabbed and he’s in the operating theatre,” Colonel Rhodes is saying. He looks vaguely annoyed, having to put his hand over the phone. “Look, Pepper, none of us need this right now.”

“Need what?” Ms Potts’ voice is deadly sharp.

“Your fucking nagging,” Colonel Rhodes says it straight and Peter pretends to fold himself into the wall. “The man almost died trying to save us all. Don’t start shouting at him the minute he wakes up.”

Maybe if he acts invisible, he will be. He wants to go look for May, because this might take a while, but he’s torn between staying for Tony and leaving for May. Miss Potts looks murderous and Peter makes up his mind in an instant.

It doesn’t take very much for him to sneak away, but when he does, he really wishes he hadn’t.

.

.

“Peter,” Tony says, his voice gentler than it’s ever been. “I have something to tell you.”

The kid is in his chair, seated next to him near the hospital bed, and Tony doesn’t really know who is comforting who, because he woke up screaming for Peter and Peter hasn’t said a word since Rhodey brought him back from his apartment.

“Did you find May?” Peter’s voice is quiet and Tony would claw the entire world apart if it would mean finding May for him. The kid continues. “She would have been at home,” he says. “Her shifts on Tuesdays always start late. She likes making big breakfasts in the mornings.”

Tony stares at Peter curled up in his chair, something wrought and desperate in his chest. He opens his mouth, closes it. Never felt so stuck or helpless before.

Is this what Rhodey feels like? How _ever_ could he bear it?

“Peter,” Tony says. “I’m really sorry. Some people… they didn’t make it back.”

He’s checked and checked and checked. Called Nebula and the other Guardians. Begged for the stones. Tried everything, exhausted every route.

Peter’s face is wan and tired. The way it crumples kills Tony’s heart.

“It’s not—it’s not fair,” Peter says hotly, shaking his head. He’s getting up from his seat and Tony wants to follow but for the gaping hole in his stomach. “She didn’t do anything, she was good—,”

The kid breaks himself off before bolting.

“Peter, come back! Peter!”

**Author's Note:**

> me @ me: sTOP KILLING AUNT MAY  
> also me dancing and playing death bingo: eenie meenie miney may how you gonna die today


End file.
